55 informative preface lawful — without doing harm to anybody else. Nor does it absolutely request the eremitical title in order to make itself equal to anybody. In truth, it is convinced that it should venerate each of the most holy, ancient, and pious Orders and all Institutes to such an extent as to profess itself the last of all and recommend itself humbly to their protection and charity. 4. From all these things, each one can conclude that this present Institute of Marians Hermits, founded in the status approved by Canon Law, does not need any other approval.8 For when the Superior General applied to the Holy Apostolic See for its confirmation,9 the whole affair was first examined for almost a year by the Apostolic Nunciature in Poland. Then, on the basis of its information, the matter was also discussed for a longer time in Rome. Finally, the answer came, through the aforesaid Cardinal,10 that it is enough for the Institute to have the approval of the Ordinary of the place and this Rule of Life, which has been studied by His Eminence with utmost assiduity and corrected with the highest of wisdoms.11 Such an answer is contained in the authentic letter of His Eminence directed to the Superior and his companions,12 the letter which has been presented to and accepted by the present Bishop of Poznań.13 8 This fact is stressed by Fr. Stanislaus, because some people claimed that the Marians, without a Pontifical approval, had no right to exist as a religious Institute. 9 Fr. Stanislaus made a double petition in this sense in 1692; cf. Positio, pp. 515-519. 10 He speaks here about Cardinal Leander Colloredo, whose name figures on the front page of the Rule of Life. 11 It is impossible for us to know the extent of the corrections made in the Rule of Life by Cardinal Colloredo because we do not know if the text presented by Fr. Stanislaus for approval was exactly that of 1687. Hence it is possible that Fr. Stanislaus himself is responsible for some differences between the Norma Vitae of 1687 and that of 1694. 12 This letter is no longer available to us, not even in a copy. 13 He speaks here about Bishop John Stanislaus Witwicki, Ordinary of Poznań (1687-1698).
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